In the early days of computer the input and output was either in the form of numbers or text. The primary input devices were teletypewriters and punched card readers. As computing became better and cheaper, graphical user interfaces were developed, and along with them an interactive input controller called the mouse. The mouse is a hand held device with one or more click buttons and usually a ball and x/y rod assembly that tracks movement on a plane, typically the surface of a desk. Since the original design, there have been numerous variations of the mouse. Some are used palm down like the first mouse, but many versions are utilized with the hand in a “thumb up” position such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,147 to Lear, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,303 to Barr.
Recently computing has become so much better and cheaper that interactive three-dimensional graphics has become commonplace. Computer graphics coupled with stereographic output devices and three-dimensional “gloves” has led to a branch of interactive computer graphics called Virtual Reality. Glove technology uses a combination of finger switches or buttons along with flexion sensors and a three-dimensional position sensor, generally placed on the back of the hand, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,669 to Mohri, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,764,164 to Cartabiano.
The problem with such devices is related to their structure. When people use gloves on their hands in warm surroundings their hands will tend to perspire. The insides of the gloves get wet. The combination of water and constant movement tends to wear out the gloves' finger sensors. Gloves are also right and left handed, so for applications that require two hands, two different gloves must be manufactured, whereas some types of mouse like controllers are ambidextrous such as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,072,471 to Lo. Furthermore, unlike a mouse, which can just be temporarily left on a surface when not in use, gloves must be physically taken off when temporarily suspending computer operations.